[Bitcoin-ml] What i would like to see in the next HF + timeline

[Erik Beijnoff]

> 
> If we want to scale big we'll have to do a HF from time to time. Longer term, we may want to use extension point to add new features, but we are not there yet - more on extension points later on.

Hardfork at will. I see no problem with that, as long as the updates are announced long enough in advance.

> 
> The merkle tree computation could be changed as follow:
> 
> The left branch starting from the root contains only the coinbase.
> The right branch contains all the transactions - minus the coinbase, ordered by txid.
> Empty subtrees (when there is an odd number of nodes at some level) are 0x000...0001
> 
> Interestingly enough, this allow for the same kind of merkle proof that already are possible today. In addition, because transaction are ordered by txid, it is possible to prove absence from the tree easily.
> 
+1 

> 
> The maximal target ensure that several bits in the block hash are always 0, no matter what. These bits can be repurposed as an extra nonce. This is a very small and easy patch and current nonce space is not quite large enough.
> 
+1. I like it. 

All very good proposals that you’ve sent. But we shouldn’t bundle too many changes in a too early release with breaking changes.

I’d suggest solving the diff issue first, then plan a release further down the line, 9-12 months, with all breaking changes in one bigger upgrade package.

/Erik